Football: Fairhaven brings back 2017 core group

Thursday

FAIRHAVEN — On the second day of offensive drills, the Fairhaven High School football team was already running plays that the Blue Devils had run on Thanksgiving against Dartmouth.

"We already have a whole playbook from last year. We're going to pick that right up and just keep going with that," said senior quarterback Brady Bennett. “We usually have to start the playbook off a lot smaller, but we really know each other, (and) we have very good chemistry, me and the backs.

“Our playbook is going to expand, were going to do a lot more things, and our offense is going to be a lot sharper.”

In recent years, continuation, consistency and momentum have been hard to come by for Fairhaven.

Once again, 36 students signed up for football. Last year, less than 20 were in uniform for the season finale, a hard-fought, 14-0 defeat against the visiting Indians.

Bennett had been the leader in offseason weight training, and senior fullback Zach Guillotte has been right alongside, setting an example.

The challenge continues to be establishing a culture whereby underclassmen catch on and add to Fairhaven’s 12-man nucleus of go-to football players.

“I mean, weight room is a little slow, it was a bunch of senior guys. We didn't get a good presence of the younger guys, but that's just how it's been the last few years, but the guys that go, we really work,” said Bennett. “Unfortunately, that's how it goes. They're getting drilled out here and then they realize, 'Let's get in the weight room.'"

Drew Macomber is back with the football team after a junior year playing soccer.

Among underclassmen to raise early eyebrows are sophomore Reece Antunes and freshman Cam Gordon.

“(Antunes) made really good strides in the weight room this year, he barely missed a day, he's an athletic kid,” said Bennett. “That's how I see it, it's all about the weight room because when you're athletic you really show it out here.”

“I've seen (Gordon) in Pop Warner, he's amazing. He was quarterback in Pop Warner, but I think now he's going to running back,” said Guillotte.

How do the Blue Devils perpetuate and expand upon their small army of totally committed athletes?

“Well, two ways we figure that out: When (the new students) get here, we lead by example, and when they get on the practice field they're going to realize how much they've missed compared to us, so we're going to be a lot more conditioned,” said Guillotte. “They're going to struggle until they figure out that they need to go exercise and get in the weight room.

“We go into every game assuming we're going to work hard, lose or win.

Whenever we lost a game, we worked 10 times harder to make sure the next team we faced next week was definitely a win. … When we won, we didn't go to the positives, we always focused on the negatives and try to fix those negatives. We're never satisfied whether it's a win or a loss.”

Helping bring along younger players are new additions to Head Coach Rudy Bulgar’s staff in 2018 FHS graduates George Duarte and Isaac Medeiros.

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